She jumped to take a gingko tree specimen.
She selected a little branch of berries from a tall bush.
Sidney of course wanted his own branch.
We did not take a sample from the below tree but they both wanted to have their pictures taken in front of it. Our little nature lovers!
After the kids took a nap, Cleo did some homework with Roger and I took Sidney outside to practice riding his tricycle. He needed to practice for the Sept. 5 St. Jude's fundraising Trike-A-Thon at this daycare.
Cleo came out at one point to see how Sidney was doing on his trike.
After homework and trike riding, the kids helped me put in a big stick in the planter to anchor the tomato plant. The plant was leaning entirely over the edge and needed something to keep it upright. I found a suitable stick when we were leaving the park. Sidney insisted on carrying to the car despite the fact that the stick was longer than Sidney was tall.
This morning, we took the kids to the Dekalb Farmers Market in Decatur, GA. We wanted to diversify Cleo's lunches and she also has a plant-related project due on Sept. 14. That project is now added to the already existing project she has due on Sept. 14. For that project, she has to paste pictures (real or drawn) into a a book (she make the book) and finish 4 sentences. Her teacher provided the first half of the sentences, e.g., "My friend makes me feel..." The plant project entails observing 5 plants that we eat. She has to draw a picture of the plant. We bought the following foods that she can select from: one little radish, oranges, string beans, Brussels sprouts, two green peanuts (which look like regular peanuts but they have to be cooked before one eats them), one yellow bell pepper, one orange bell pepper, two broccoli crowns, and two bunch of asparagus. As I was putting her to bed for her nap, she said she was very excited to try the radish because she had never had one before. I suppose we need to expose them both to more of a variety of fruits and vegetables.
There is a bakery in the Farmers Market. Cleo loves frosted cinnamon buns of the Cinnabun variety. The cinnamon bun at the market was not frosted so Cleo opted for a chocolate croissant. The chocolate was super bitter but she enjoyed the buttery, flaky croissant. She commented that it was buttery without our even telling her that there was butter in it. Sidney selected a cream cheese danish. He ate around 1/3 of it. I used to love cheese danish but have not eaten them much in the past 10 years. I took 2 bites of his, it was really good. When we got home, Sidney ate his golden plum that he picked out. For some reason, stores are calling plums by the name "pluot." So the bin's sign said, "golden plots." His plum was really good, Cleo had a bite and agreed. Cleo had some baby carrots, which both kids like a lot.
This past week, I have been feeling bad that most of the food items that Cleo brings for lunch are processed. So, from now on her lunch will with have some vegetables incorporated into it. We are going to give her a turkey wrap with asparagus, baby carrots, and steamed broccoli. I am not saying she will have all of those at once. I am saying that if we give her the ham & cracker lunch, then she will have broccoli on the side and no chips that day. She has had cooked yellow and orange peppers in pasta dishes, but I don't think she's tried them raw. I am going to give her a little ranch dressing to dip the broccoli and other vegetables in. I will report on our success next week.
My knee is doing much better. It improved drastically byMonday, Sept. 3. It is still sore and if something knocks against it, it hurts. I have not gone to the gym or run on it all week. I decided not to go to the gym today but will go tomorrow. I am not sure if I am going to run or just use the step mill. The Kaiser Permanente 5K is Sept. 13. My work friend and workout partner is not able to run the entire 3.1 miles so I may walk/run with her. She has had some knee and stamina issues. When I run 3 times a week, my knees ache. I can run 2 times a week and I am fine. We will see how I feel by Thursday. After the 5K, my next goal is to start doing my P90X DVDs and not let them continue to collect dust. I can do my own moderate version that ensures I don't injure my knees.
Last month, we were invited to one of Roger's church deacon's 3 year-old grandson's birthday party for today. The Deacon, Niomie, was going to have her party planner send us an invite which we never received. I never noted it in my planner and we forgot about it. We got an email from Niomi this morning reminding us about the party. We said we would come but after more thought we realized it was just too much to do in light of all of Cleo's projects. She also has more homework due this week so it would be impossible to just do one project and work on the other project during the week.
This week, Cleo was one of only two kids in her class to be able to count to 10 in French. Her little gal pal at school, Luna, was the other child. Cleo was rewarded with a ballon which she misplaced but she seemed fine about. We told her that she would win many other awards in the future.
Sidney did well in his trike a thon and thanks to you all he raised $180. Because of that amount, he will get a t-shirt, a bear puppet, and an umbrella. The fundraiser was on Wednesday. Thursday morning, he asked us if the trike a thon was happening again and when we told him it was not he was very disappointed.
Sidney can now make the "d" in his first name and does not make a "b." He is so proud of himself. He's still making his "e" backwards and sideways but he will get it eventually. He also makes a super big lowercase "n" when he writes his first and last names.
Cleo's teacher has asked to ensure that the kids read 10 books a month. There is a sheet we fill out daily that lists the title, author, illustrator, and number of pages in each book we read or Cleo reads. For meeting the 10 book goal for August, Cleo was rewarded with a voucher for a Personal Pan Pizza with one topping from Pizza Hut. We are so proud of her. We are not sure when she will redeem her voucher.
When I put Cleo to bed, I read her 2 books. Roger reads her one book so Cleo is reading or having read to her a lot more than 10 books each month. I got her around 8 books from the library this week so that she could have some variety. I got two Charlie Brown books but I am not digging the language used, e.g., words like "stupid" or "blockhead." I forgot how much name calling there was in Charlie Brown, of course it's Lucy using the not so nice language. The other Charlie Brown book was about Linus and his attachment to his blanket and Lucy and his grandmother giving him a hard time. The words used regarding Linus' love for his blanket were not kind. I suppose I am looking at it through the lens of a different generation and Charles Schulz' generation was a lot more harsh and impatient with kids who acted babyish.
The kids are napping. We will get them up around 3pm. Cleo will start one of her projects with Roger and I will entertain Sidney. We got him a little Avengers bowling set and he really enjoys that. Cleo plays with it a lot too. I will work on writing his name with him. Last week, I worked on both of Cleo's projects so its Roger's turn. He likes doing the projects with her because he likes sharing in Cleo's artistic development.
Have a great week!
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